Golden Library (ENMU): Artwork – Portales NM

Description

In addition to “Science,” a large New Deal mural, ENMU’s Golden library is the home of several smaller commissioned (“portable”) examples of New Deal paintings, including:

• Gene Kloss: “Penitente Friday” and “Acoma”
• Stuart Walker: “Black and White Sawmill” and “Abstract”
• Cady Wells: “Mesas” (which may not be New Deal-sponsored)
• Brooks Willis: “Sawmill”

According to Flynn, the ENMU’s Department of Music Building had housed these examples of New Deal oil paintings. They, too, were more recently housed at Golden Library.

Three oil paintings done around 1934 by Nils Hogner grace the walls of the staff lounge. They are colorful Navajo Indian scenes. We understand that one has disappeared. It is titled “Sanitation, Isleta Pueblo” and we hope someday it will be found and returned to this university to join with the three other Hogner paintings.

The date of the works suggest that they were likely commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP).

As of 2018, the situation is different as a result of ongoing construction efforts at Golden Library. According to Gene Bundy, Special Collections Librarian:

“All of the portable WPA art has been collected and displayed in the library for the past 6 or so years, including the three pieces that had been in the music building. As the building, formerly known as Golden Library, is being remodeled all of the art is currently in Bernalillo Hall, and can be viewed there. When construction is completed and we move back into the building the art will go with us.”